Plot

Elderly residents of a Toronto nursing home cope with loss, loneliness and other heartbreaking challenges of growing old, as the home's staff work tirelessly to provide an environment of dignified, compassionate care.

At Baycrest, an old-age home in Toronto, we follow a social worker as she talks to residents, particularly Max, Claire, Ida, and Rachel. The film opens on Claire's birthday, she's 89; Max, a tiny cheerful man, is her close friend. Rachel is lonesome, missing her son, complaining he rarely visits. Ida relies on memory for her solace. Helen has no memory and doesn't recognize her daughter; her moods swing. Murray keeps his cap on and likes women. Staff members bring medication, provide care, and offer small talk. Memory is fleeting: Claire re-experiences the death of a close companion several times, each time without remembering her previous grieving. Lives are circumscribed.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

The film unmasks myths about dementia. People do not lose their minds, feelings or identity. Residents at a Toronto Jewish sen-ior care home share their daily lives with three filmmakers for four months. Spontaneously and without direction they express with great power their feelings of love, hate, and humour; their happi-ness, anger and loneliness; and especially their need for love.